Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (/ˈfaɪfər/;[1] born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and occasional singer. She began her acting career in 1978 and had her first starring film role in Grease 2 (1982), before receiving mainstream attention for her breakout performance in Scarface (1983). Her greatest commercial successes include Batman Returns (1992), Dangerous Minds (1995), What Lies Beneath (2000) and Hairspray (2007).

Early life

Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California, the second of four children of Richard Pfeiffer, an air-conditioning contractor,[2] and Donna (née Taverna), a housewife. She has one elder brother, Rick (born 1955), and two younger sisters, Dedee Pfeiffer, a television and film actress,[3] and Lori Pfeiffer (born 1965).[4] Her parents were both originally from North Dakota.[5] Her paternal grandfather was of German ancestry and her paternal grandmother was of English, Welsh, French, Irish, and Dutch descent, while her maternal grandfather was of Swiss-German descent and her maternal grandmother was of Swedish ancestry.[6][7] The family moved to Midway City, where Pfeiffer spent her childhood.[8]

She attended Fountain Valley High School, graduating in 1976.[9] She worked as a check-out girl at Vons supermarket, and attended Golden West College[10] where she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. After a short stint training to be a court stenographer, she decided upon an acting career.[11] She won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978, and participated in Miss California the same year, finishing in sixth position.[12] Following her participation in these pageants, she acquired an acting agent and began to audition for television and films.[13]

Career

First television and film appearances

Pfeiffer's early acting appearances included television roles in Fantasy Island,[9]Delta House and BAD Cats among others. She was one of the several candidates to audition as a replacement for Kate Jackson on the television series Charlie's Angels in 1979, although the part went to Shelley Hack. She had small roles in a few theatrical films, including Falling in Love Again (1980) with Susannah York, The Hollywood Knights (1980) opposite Tony Danza, and Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981), none of which met with much critical or box office success. Pfeiffer later said of her early screen work: "I needed to learn how to act... in the meantime, I was playing bimbos and cashing in on my looks."[9] She appeared in a television commercial for Lux soap,[14] and took acting lessons at the Beverly Hills Playhouse,[15] before appearing in three further television movies – Callie and Son (1981) with Lindsay Wagner, The Children Nobody Wanted (1981), and a 1981 TV movie remake of Splendor in the Grass. She then landed her first major film role as Stephanie Zinone in Grease 2 (1982), the sequel to the smash-hit musical Grease (1978).[16] The film was a critical and commercial failure, and Pfeiffer's single release of "Cool Rider" from the film's soundtrack on PolyGram failed to dent the music charts. Nevertheless, Pfeiffer received some positive attention for her performance, notably from the New York Times, which said "although she is a relative screen newcomer, Miss Pfeiffer manages to look much more insouciant and comfortable than anyone else in the cast".[17] Despite escaping the critical mauling, Pfeiffer's agent later admitted that her association with the film meant that "she couldn't get any jobs. Nobody wanted to hire her".[16]

Mainstream attention

Director Brian De Palma, having seen Grease 2, refused to audition Pfeiffer for Scarface (1983), but relented at the insistence of Martin Bregman, the film's producer. She was cast as cocaine-addicted trophy wife Elvira Hancock.[18] The film was considered excessively violent by most critics, but became a commercial hit and gained a large cult following in subsequent years.[19] Pfeiffer received positive reviews for her supporting turn; Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote, "most of the large cast is fine: Michelle Pfeiffer is better ..."[20] while Dominick Dunne, in an article for Vanity Fair titled "Blonde Ambition", wrote, "[s]he is on the verge of stardom. In the parlance of the industry, she is hot".[21]

In 1990, Michelle formed her own boutique film production company called Via Rosa Productions, which ran for ten years. The company would allow Pfeiffer to produce and/or star in films tailored for strong women. She asked her best friend Kate Guinzburg to be her producing partner at the company. The two met on the set of the film Sweet Liberty (1986) and quickly became friends. Kate was the Production Coordinator on the film and became close with Pfeiffer over the course of the shoot. Via Rosa Productions was under a picture deal with Touchstone Pictures, a film label of The Walt Disney Studios. The first film the duo produced was Love Field (1992).

Pfeiffer earned an Academy Award nomination for Actress in a Leading Role and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance as Lurene Hallett in the nostalgic independent drama Love Field (1992). This film had been temporarily shelved by the financially troubled Orion Pictures. It was finally released in late 1992, in time for Oscar consideration. The New York Times review wrote of Pfeiffer as "again demonstrating that she is as subtle and surprising as she is beautiful."[46] For her portrayal of the eccentric Dallas housewife, she won the Silver Bear Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival.[47][48]

Pfeiffer took the role of Catwoman (Selina Kyle) in Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992) opposite Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito. For the role of Catwoman, she trained in martial arts and kickboxing. Pfeiffer has received universal critical acclaim for her performance and is consistently referred to as the greatest portrayal of Selina Kyle/Catwoman of all time by critics and fans. She was constantly praised for the amount of dimension and authenticity she brought to the character.[16]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised her for giving the "feminist avenger a tough core of intelligence and wit" and called her a "classic dazzler".[49]Premiere retrospectively lauded her performance: "Arguably the outstanding villain of the Tim Burton era, Michelle Pfeiffer's deadly kitten with a whip brought sex to the normally neutered franchise. Her stitched-together, black patent leather costume, based on a sketch of Burton's, remains the character's most iconic look. And Michelle Pfeiffer overcomes Batman Returns' heavy-handed feminist dialogue to deliver a growling, fierce performance".[50] The movie met a big box office success, grossing over $266million worldwide (equivalent to $449.3million).[51]

Pfeiffer's subsequent career choices have met with varying degrees of success. After The Age of Innocence, she played the role of Laura Alden opposite Jack Nicholson in Wolf (1994), a horror film that garnered a mixed critical reception.[54] The New York Times wrote: "Ms. Pfeiffer's role is underwritten, but her performance is expert enough to make even diffidence compelling".[55] The movie grossed US$65million (equivalent to $104.0million) at the domestic box office and US$131million worldwide (equivalent to $209.5million).[56] Her next role was that of high school teacher and former US MarineLouAnne Johnson in the surprise box office hit Dangerous Minds (1995),[57] which was semi-produced under Pfeiffer's film production company Via Rosa Productions. She appeared as her character in the music video for the soundtrack's lead single, 'Gangsta's Paradise' by Coolio (featuring L.V.), which was used by the producer Jerry Bruckheimer for television advertising. A 60-second version was aired on music channels, while a 30-second cut was aired in the rest of the networks.[58] The song won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance,[59] and the video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video.[60]

During the 1990s, Pfeiffer attracted comment in the media for her beauty. In 1990, she appeared on the cover of People magazine's first 50 Most Beautiful People In The World issue. She was again featured on the cover of the annual issue in 1999, having made the "Most Beautiful" list a record six times during the decade (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999). Pfeiffer is the first celebrity to have appeared on the cover of the annual issue twice, and the only person to be featured on the cover twice during the 1990s.[70]

In 1999, Pfeiffer chose to begin the process of dissolving her film production company, Via Rosa Productions and move into semi-retirement in order to spend more quality time with her children and family. She would continue to star in films sporadically into the 2000s and beyond. Pfeiffer handed her producing partner Guinzburg one final film to produce under the Via Rosa Productions header. The film was called, Original Sin (2001). It was originally intended to star Pfeiffer, who later changed her mind as she was looking to work less for a while. The film was produced by her company, but instead starred Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas.

The Hitchcockian thriller What Lies Beneath (2000) with Harrison Ford, was a commercial success, opening number one at the box office in July 2000.[71] She then accepted the role of highly strung lawyer Rita Harrison in I Am Sam (2001) opposite Sean Penn.[72] The movie received unfavorable reviews,[73] The Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote: "Pfeiffer, apparently stymied by the bland clichés that prop up her screechy role, delivers her flattest, phoniest performance ever".[74] Although another journalist blamed her performance on the poor material given to work with. SF Gate wrote: "In one scene, she breaks down in tears as she unburdens herself to him about her miserable life. It's hard not to cringe, watching this emotionally ready actress fling herself headlong into false material".[75]

Pfeiffer then accepted the roles of Rosie in Amy Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) with Paul Rudd and Saoirse Ronan,[82] and Linda in Personal Effects (2009), which she starred opposite Ashton Kutcher and Kathy Bates, and was premiered at Iowa City's Englert Theatre.[83] Her next film, an adaptation of Colette's Chéri (2009), reunited her with the director (Stephen Frears) and screenwriter (Christopher Hampton) of Dangerous Liaisons (1988), a film for which all three were nominees for (and, in Hampton's case, recipient of) an Academy Award. Pfeiffer played the role of Léa de Lonval opposite Rupert Friend in the title role, with Kathy Bates as his mother. Chéri premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2009, and received a nomination for the Golden Bear award.[84]The Times of London reviewed the film favorably, describing Hampton's screenplay as a "steady flow of dry quips and acerbic one-liners" and Pfeiffer's performance as "magnetic and subtle, her worldly nonchalance a mask for vulnerability and heartache".[85] Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that it was "fascinating to observe how Pfeiffer controls her face and voice during times of painful hurt".[86]Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times praised the "wordless scenes that catch Léa unawares, with the camera alone seeing the despair and regret that she hides from the world. It's the kind of refined, delicate acting Pfeiffer does so well, and it's a further reminder of how much we've missed her since she's been away".[87]

In interviews promoting The Family, Pfeiffer stated her desire to do an all-action movie. "...I want to be like the Kiefer Sutherland character in "24". Jack Bauer? I want to be like him! ... I want to kick butt ...[90] I better do it soon".[91] Pfeiffer has stated that her lack of acting throughout the 2000s was due to her children,[92] and now with both her children away at college, she intends to "work a lot".[93]

Pfeiffer has commented that she feels that her best performance is "still in her", and that she thinks that's what keeps her going.[94]

Forthcoming films and announced projects

On November 7, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Pfeiffer will star alongside Tim Robbins (also director) and Chloë Grace Moretz in the dark comedy, Man Under. "The movie is described as being in the vein of American Beauty and The Royal Tenenbaums. It is about a dysfunctional Yonkers, New York, family whose lives are changed after a photo of them ends up in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, turning them into celebrities".[95] On the red carpet at the New York City premiere of The Family, Pfeiffer revealed that she would be shooting a film in February 2014 entitled, Whatever Makes You Happy co-starring Viola Davis and Diane Keaton.[93]

In September 2013, it was revealed that Pfeiffer will star in Best Boy directed by Robert Rodriguez, written by Nick Thiel.[96] On December 13, 2012, Sonya Sones, author of the book The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus: a Novel about Marriage, Motherhood, and Mayhem, announced that Pfeiffer had optioned the film rights to the book.[97]

On October 27, 2015, it was announced that Pfeiffer would star in Beat-up Little Seagull for Killer Films. Her character, described as a sensitive and fragile, loses her mother and "faces a crisis in which she must find a means for survival, all the while hiding her struggles from her new lover". Actor Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as the character's love interest.[101]

On April 15, 2016, it was announced that Pfeiffer was in negotiations to join Darren Aronofsky's upcoming drama Mother alongside actors Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. Filming began on June 13, 2016 and is expected to hit theaters December 29, 2017, just in time for Oscar season. [102]

Theatre

In 1989, Pfeiffer made her stage debut in the role of Olivia in Twelfth Night, a New York Shakespeare Festival production staged in Central Park. Other film actors appearing in the play included Jeff Goldblum as Malvolio and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Viola.[105]Frank Rich's review in the New York Times was extremely critical of the production, stating "Ms. Pfeiffer offers an object lesson in how gifted stars with young careers can be misused by those more interested in exploiting their celebrity status than in furthering their artistic development".[46] Rich praised Pfeiffer's performance in what was then her most recent film, the screwball comedy Married to the Mob, but stating it was "unfortunate that the actress has been asked to make both her stage and Shakespearean comic debut in a role chained to melancholy and mourning".[46]

Personal life

While taking acting classes in Los Angeles, Pfeiffer was taken in by a seemingly friendly couple who ran a metaphysics and vegetariancult. While they helped Pfeiffer to stop drinking, smoking, or doing drugs, the couple took control of her entire life. Much of her money went to the group. "I was brainwashed... I gave them an enormous amount of money." Pfeiffer, insecure, felt that she could no longer live without them. At an acting class taught by Milton Katselas in Los Angeles, Pfeiffer met fellow budding actor, Peter Horton. Pfeiffer and Horton began dating.

Pfeiffer and Horton eventually married in Santa Monica in 1981, and it was on their honeymoon that she discovered she had won the lead role in Grease 2.[106] Horton directed Pfeiffer in a 1985 ABC TV special, One Too Many, in which she played the high school girlfriend of an alcoholic student (Val Kilmer);[107] and in 1987, the real-life couple played an on-screen couple in the 'Hospital' segment of John Landis's comedy skit compilation, Amazon Women on the Moon. However, they decided to separate in 1988, and were divorced two years later; Horton later blamed the split on their devotion to their work rather than on their marriage.[18]

In January 1993, Pfeiffer was set up on a blind date by her best friend and former producing partner Kate Guinzburg, with television writer and producer David E. Kelley, who took her to the movies to see Bram Stoker's Dracula the following week, and they began dating seriously.[115] They married on November 13, 1993. She made a brief uncredited cameo appearance in one episode of Kelley's television series Picket Fences and played the title character in To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, for which Kelley wrote the screenplay.[116] Pfeiffer had entered into private adoption proceedings before she met Kelley.[117] In March 1993, she adopted a newborn daughter, Claudia Rose,[118] who was christened on Pfeiffer and Kelley's wedding day.[119] In August 1994, Pfeiffer gave birth to a son, John Henry.[115]

Having been a smoker for ten years and having a niece who suffered from leukemia for ten years, she decided to support the American Cancer Society.[120] Her charity work also includes her support for the Humane Society.[18] Pfeiffer is a vegan.[121] In 2016, she attended the Healthy Child Healthy World's L.A. Gala 2016 for people who lead the organizations for children’s environmental health and protect those most vulnerable.[122]

In popular culture

Culture commentators noted that in 2014, Pfeiffer, who was not promoting any movies at the time, had become a "pop-music muse" and was mentioned by name in the lyrics of two separate songs moving up the charts at that time: "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars and "Riptide" by Vance Joy.[123][124]

Pfeiffer is mentioned in Vance Joy's 2013 song, "Riptide" ("I swear she's destined for the screen, Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen")[125] Joy told reporters that the Pfeiffer film moment which led him to include her name in his song was her portrayal of Selina Kyle in Batman Returns. He said, "She comes back to her apartment after being thrown out the window by Christopher Walken and she goes mental. Her apartment's all pink and beautiful, and kind of creepy and infantile, then she just smashes it all up and spray paints stuff and transforms into Catwoman. It’s this really kind of sexual scene; it’s amazing."[123]

Pfeiffer is also mentioned in Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars's 2014 song, "Uptown Funk" ("This hit, That ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer, That white gold")[126] In an interview Ronson answered a reporter saying his favorite Pfeiffer movie was "The Fabulous Baker Boys. I also liked her in Scarface and Tequila Sunrise. She was such a babe".[127]

Australian cricketers speak of "getting a Michelle" when they take five wickets in an innings. This means they have taken "Five for" which has become a "Pfeiffer" and hence a "Michelle".[128]